NIRI Update

The NIRI maintenance work has now been completed and NIRI has been
tested cold in the lab. All the mechanisms are moving and the new
bushings are working well. In addition to the preventative maintenance,
we also installed the new Shack-Hartmann roof prism in the on-instrument
wavefront sensor optics. We look forward to using the 2x2 spot
pattern to correct for fast tip-tilt and focus in the coming months.
The NIRI science-channel camera optics were realigned and the pupil
alignment is nearly identical to that before the shutdown.

The NIRI web pages have been updated in support of the Phase II
preparation for the current semester and for the Call for Proposals
for 2003A. PIs who have not yet submitted their Phase II programs
for 2002B should do so as soon as possible. NIRI will be back on the
sky starting Sept. 17.

The
NIRI IRAF package is being expanded to include the first release
of the spectroscopic tasks. The next release of the Gemini IRAF package
is scheduled for the end of this month. PIs who got spectroscopic data
during 2002A will probably want to install the new version of the Gemini
IRAF package before reducing their data.